CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE. 555 



joyment when discussing the "British Asses." In 1862 

 he was appointed a member of " The Committee on Standards 

 of Electrical Eesistance." In the report issued in 1863, the 

 Appendix, " On the Elementary Eelations between Electrical 

 Measurements," bears the name of Professor Maxwell in con- 

 junction with that of Professor Fleeming Jenkin, while the 

 general description of the method employed in the deter- 

 mination of the Ohm or B. A. unit of resistance, together 

 with the mathematical theory and details of the experiments, 

 are from Maxwell's pen. In 1863-4 Maxwell was again at 

 work on the same subject in the laboratory of King's College, 

 and most of the " spins " 1 were conducted under his own 

 supervision. In 1869 the results of Maxwell's experiments 

 on the relation of the electromagnetic to the electrostatic 

 unit of electricity, described above, were embodied in the 

 Eeport to the British Association at the meeting at Dundee, 

 and this forms the last of the Eeports of the Committee. 



In 1874 Professor Maxwell was elected a member of 

 the committee appointed by the British Association for the 

 purpose of investigating Ohm's law. Most of the work 

 executed by this committee was carried out by Professor 

 Chrystal in the Cavendish Laboratory, under the supervision 

 and at the suggestion of Professor Maxwell. An account of 

 the investigations will be found in the report presented to 

 the Association at the Glasgow meeting in 1876. 



Before concluding our notice of Maxwell's contributions 

 to electrical science we must mention the preparation for the 

 press of The Electrical Researches of the Honourable Henry 

 Cavendish, published in 1879, only a few weeks before the 

 death of its editor. The amount of labour which Professor 

 Maxwell bestowed on this work during the last five years of 

 his life can only be known to those who were constantly in 

 his company. Nearly all the MS. he transcribed with his 

 own hand, the greater part being copied after midnight, while 

 he watched over Mrs. Maxwell during the long illness to 

 which allusion has elsewhere been made. Every obscure 



1 See Part I. p. 316. 



